+++ FORD has announced a massive clean out of its executive management structure, with former Steelcase boss Jim Hackett named as the new president and CEO, replacing Mark Fields who is retiring after 3 years at the helm. The changes at the top are part of huge changes at the highest levels of the Blue Oval following investor concern over the company’s perceived failure to adapt to the changing automotive environment, specifically a more rapid move to electrified and autonomous vehicles. The elevation of Hackett, who was most recently chairman of Ford Smart Mobility LLC (a subsidiary created to push the company’s development of ‘emerging mobility services’) highlights Ford’s desire to be seen as a mobility company, similar to fellow US giant General Motors. GM has been faster to adapt to the changing environment. It now sells a mass market Electric Vehicle (the Chevrolet Bolt) and has already set up car-sharing company Maven as well as being a major investor in the fast-growing ride-sharing company and Uber rival Lyft. Ford said in a media release that Fields elected to retire after 28 years with the company. However reports leading up to the announcement said he was forced out of the role after shareholders complained at the annual shareholders meeting earlier this month about the value of Ford shares, which have dropped by 40 percent during Fields’ tenure. Ford’s global sales were 6,651,000 last year, marginally ahead of its 2015 tally of 6,635,000. In 2014, Fields’ first year in the top job, sales dipped from 6,330,000 units the year prior to 6,323,000. “Mark Fields has been an outstanding leader and deserves a lot of credit for all he has accomplished in his many roles around the globe at Ford”, Mr Ford said. “His strong leadership was critical to our North American restructuring, our turnaround at the end of the last decade, and our record profits in the past 2 years”. The company said that Hackett and Mr Ford will focus on 3 key priorities. They include “sharpening operational execution” globally to enhance quality, product launches and market strategy, while addressing underperforming business units. The second priority is to modernise Ford’s business with new techniques to encourage innovation, hasten decision making and boost efficiency. According to Ford this includes leveraging big data, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and advanced robotics. Ford’s final priority is to transform the company “to meet future challenges”, ensuring it can succeed as consumer and societal needs change. Ford executive chairman Bill Ford praised Hackett’s achievements in his previous roles and framed him as the right person to lead the company during a period of dramatic change for the industry. “We’re moving from a position of strength to transform Ford for the future”, he said. “Jim Hackett is the right CEO to lead Ford during this transformative period for the auto industry and the broader mobility space. He’s a true visionary who brings a unique, human-centred leadership approach to our culture, products and services that will unlock the potential of our people and our business”. Hackett will be responsible for Ford’s global operations and its 202,000 employees. Prior to his time with Ford Smart Mobility, Hackett was a member of the Ford board of directors from 2013 and sat on the company’s Sustainability and Innovation as well as the Nominating and Governance committees. He was the CEO of office furniture company Steelcase for 20 years until February 2014 and was credited with transforming the company from a “traditional manufacturer to industry innovator”, having predicted the shift in the office landscape from cubicles to an open space environment. Hackett was the interim director of athletics at the University of Michigan from late 2014 to March 2016. Ford also announced a new operational structure consisting of 3 leaders that will report to Hackett. Jim Farley, who was until now the executive vice-president and president of Ford of Europe, Middle East and Africa, has been appointed as the executive vice-president and president of global markets, overseeing The Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific. Farley will also take the reins of the Lincoln brand and lead global marketing sales and service. Executive vice-president and president of The Americas Joe Hinrichs moves to the role of executive vice-president and president of global operations, overseeing Ford’s global product development, manufacturing and labour affairs, quality, purchasing, and sustainability, environmental and safety engineering. Hinrichs will be responsible for Ford’s product development units. Marcy Klevorn moves from group vice-president, information technology and chief information officer, which she only started in January this year, to executive vice-president and president of mobility, taking over from Hackett’s role as the head of Ford Smart Mobility. These roles will be effective from June 1 and Ford says the replacements for Farley, Hinrichs and Klevorn will be announced down the track. Other changes include the appointment of former Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa communications boss Mark Truby as vice-president, communications, replacing Ray Day who will retire next year. Paul Ballew has been named as the new global chief data and analytics officer, reporting to Klevorn. Ford announced last week that an unspecified number of jobs would be lost in Australia as part of a plan to cut its North American and Asia Pacific salaried workforce by 10 percent. The cuts impact about 1.400 white-collar workers in both regions and Ford Australia is in the process of determining the number of local staff that will be made redundant. Ford said last week that the job cuts would not hit employees working in Ford’s product development units. +++
+++ When the Korean car giant, HYUNDAI , officially launches the production version of its first-ever hot-hatch (i30 N) in December, even the entry-level version will get more power than the Volkswagen Golf GTI. Hyundai will likely offer 2 versions of its i30 N performance hatch, both using the same 2.0-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder petrol engine, but in 2 states of tune. The entry-level car will make around 250 hp of power, and more than 350Nm of torque, while the ‘Performance-spec version will get at least 275 hp and likely more torque going to the front wheels. Hyundai officials were still tight-lipped at the prototype drive around general performance figures, including sprint times, for the i30 N cars. By way of comparison, the Volkswagen Golf GTI will touchdown 230 hp and the same 350 Nm of torque. It will go from 0-100 km/h in 6.4 seconds. Even the Performance GTI (245 hp) won’t be able to match the entry-level ‘N car in the power stakes. Interestingly, Hyundai’s engineers benchmarked the Golf GTI more than any other rival hatch for its all-round performance and general versatility, throughout the i30 N’s development program, to ensure it would be equally user-friendly to first-time drivers of a performance car. Hyundai’s head of performance development and high-performance vehicles, Albert Biermann acknowledged the Golf excelled in this regard, while also describing the i30 N as having an entirely different character to the Volkswagen. “What we have created with the i30 N is a lot different from a Golf GTI. Our car is more focused towards track driving than the GTI, though, the GTI is slightly better for day-to-day driving”, Biermann said. “Our car is more precise, faster reacting, more communicative and with more feedback. You have to feel what’s going on wheel side, especially with a front-wheel drive car”. Despite having more power than the GTI, Biermann was also quick to point out, that it wasn’t about being the fastest or having the quickest lap time, “it’s about having fun in the bends or on a nice twisty road. What we have created with the i30 N is a car that’s approachable, forgiving and one which allows the driver to explore the limits of the car without any scary moments”. Along with a significant power hike over the its Volkswagen rival, Hyundai’s all-new hatch get a raft of other engineering enhancements designed for the enthusiast driver. Both versions get adjustable shock absorbers, though they’re tuned slightly differently; stiffer for the top-shelf Performance model, which also lowers the car’s ride height by 5 mm. Besides the power boost, the N Performance also picks up an electronically-controlled limited-slip differential and an active exhaust flap, for even more noise. There are different drive modes, too, which automatically adjust the dampers, steering and engine response. And there’s a custom mode that allows for individual adjustments independent of the rest. Biermann called for lots of driver feedback in the i30 N, and plenty of grip. “The number1 job was good traction with this car, even without the E-LSD. Next, was to give good feedback with the steering, which is not that simple. The standard i30 is very well isolated and very robust, but with the i30 N, we were a lot more aggressive in terms of delivering feedback. In the end, we have delivered quick turn-in, quick steering response and a high level of agility, with a clear focus on agility”. Asked about lap times at the famed Nurburgring Nordschleife, Biermann is again dismissive of any hard data, but admits, “the car is pretty fast. We know that because we have been testing there for a long time in the industry pool (specific days where all manufacturers of all makes and models get to test their cars together) and there are some sections where not many other cars can pass the i30 N, despite having a lot more power”. Biermann’s team has also made plenty of suspension geometry changes, too. The front axle has been completely revised, while the whole kinematics setup is different. The roll axis has been changed; roll centre has been changed in the front, and lowered in the rear for the best possible roadholding. It seems nothing has been overlooked, even the tyres have been specifically matched to each car. The standard N car is shod with 18-inch Michelin Pilot Super Sports, while the hotter version gets bespoke 19-inch Pirelli P Zero rubber. “At the end of the day, our story is we love corners, that was the principal goal with the i30 N: it had to feel great in the bends”, Biermann added. +++
+++ LAMBORGHINI delivered a record 3,457 cars in 2016. With the arrival of its new Urus SUV, Lamborghini is predicting the number of deliveries to double. With Lamborghini choosing to assemble the Urus at its home in Sant’Agata Bolognese, some major upgrades are in store for the site. The main upgrade will be a new paint shop that will span approximately 100,000 square feet and be fully operational by the end of 2018. Lamborghini will also require an additional 200 staff once the expanded plant is at full capacity. This is in addition to the 500 staff already hired for Urus production. The Urus, which was previewed at the 2012 Beijing auto show by a concept of the same name, will make its debut later this year. Deliveries in the United States won’t commence until the third quarter of 2018, though. At launch, the Urus will be available with a twin-turbocharged V8 delivering 650 horsepower. A plug-in hybrid model combining the V-8 with an electric drive system will be added approximately 1 year after the SUV’s launch. And though the focus of the Urus will be on-road performance, Lamborghini has confirmed there will be modes to handle off-road conditions such as sand, snow, gravel, etc. Lamborghini has also hinted that there will be a personalized mode similar to the Ego mode introduced on the Aventador S. Pricing for the Urus is expected to start below 250,000 euro, which would make it the most affordable model in the automaker’s lineup. +++
+++ NISSAN will unveil a redesigned Leaf later this year, but the compact hatch is just one of multiple electric cars the automaker is planning. The next is likely to be a crossover, Daniele Schillaci, who’s in charge of electric cars at Nissan as well as sales and marketing, told. “We are clearly focusing our attention on a crossover EV, because it’s our DNA”, he said. “The crossover will really embody the latest Nissan Intelligent Mobility features”. Nissan Intelligent Mobility is represented by the core tenets of connectivity, electrification and self-driving capability. Nissan is currently working on a concept that will likely preview its next electric car. Referred to by Vmotion 3.0 by its designers, the concept will be unveiled this year and incorporate those 3 tenets of the Nissan Intelligent Mobility strategy. Nissan has toyed with the idea of an electric sports car and has rolled out 2 such concepts in recent years. Nissan even confirmed one of those concepts for production, though it appears the strong demand for SUVs has swayed Nissan to opt for the more popular, more practical body style for its next EV. +++
+++ The PSA group is looking decidedly ready to recuperate the distance between itself and other global automakers that are more advanced in the autonomous segment. The Peugeot brand is getting ready to start self-driving trials in Singapore this fall with help from partners nuTonomy, while the first brand to offer on a series model a semi-autonomous system will actually be the group’s youngest: DS, on the flagship 7 Crossback. OPEL , now also a member of PSA, is also hard at work developing and researching the technology for autonomous driving. Opel is involved with “Ko-HAF – Kooperatives hochautomatisiertes Fahren”, a German project working on cooperative highly automated driving, which kicked off back in June 2015 and will come to a conclusion in November next year. And they will finish strong: a demonstration of an autonomous Opel prototype on public streets, to happen in September 2018. Opel is working on computerized maps and the process of disengaging the car from the automated driving status to return the control to the human operator, but they also develop software and a system of sensors to detect and classify the driver’s actions while the car is in robot mode. The goal for the Russelsheim brand is to create a prototype capable of autonomous driving on the motorway, including merging and exit. +++
+++ RENAULT – Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says politicians around the world need to do a better job defending globalization. The alliance of the French and Japanese automotive giants has long been in the vanguard of companies pushing for more open markets globally. But, as voters in several recent elections have shown, there is significant public displeasure with some of the more local effects of globalization, including unemployment and a sense of diminished sovereignty. Q: You were born in Brazil, educated in French in Lebanon, went to university in France, had business success at Michelin in the U.S. And you’ve been involved with Japan now, very extensively, for 18 years. When people question the value of globalization, when they say trade is bad for their country, what does that mean for you personally? A: I think it’s a call for action. When you try to look at the facts about what globalization has brought to humankind in general, it’s very difficult to contest the fact that it has been a very good trend. Obviously, it has not been perfect. It hasn’t been very good for every single entity everywhere in the world. And it has also had some excesses, maybe not due to globalization but generated by globalization. I think it’s a call to answer, to try to understand why we have this pushback in some countries, why people don’t understand, and what are the corrections we need to bring or clarify. Because without any doubt, in my opinion, this trend is going to continue. Look at the young generation, at people’s aspirations. They all want to continue, one way or the other, in some kind of globalization. We need to defend and explain and market globalization much more. We assume it’s so obvious that everybody’s going to understand these benefits. But we have been wrong in many cases, and cases which are surprising. Because today, we are in an interesting situation, where globalization seems to be more defended in emerging countries and emerging economies and has more resistance in some of the developed countries. Q: What’s the marketing slogan? What’s the pitch? A: The big difference between businesspeople and other categories of people is that we look at scorecards. And a lasting, positive scorecard cannot be generated by something bad. Frankly, when you look at globalization, the scorecard is absolutely tremendous. If you look at what happened from China to India to Russia to Brazil to what will happen, we think, to Africa, what’s happening in Southeast Asia, it’s hard to say, “Well, this scorecard is questionable”. It’s not questionable. Now, it may be questioned by some people. It may be questionable in some categories. But it’s up to us to defend, based on the scorecard, the fact that this is something good, recognizing, again, the excesses, some of the shortfalls, and accepting the fact that it’s not going to be linear. You’re going to have some inflections, and we need to help the correction of the inflection. Q: What is your company’s view of the U.K. after Brexit? A: It’s a good question, except that nobody knows what is after Brexit. We are businesspeople. We can’t assume. We need to judge based on indexes, facts; things which are solid. Because we’re talking about massive investments. In our case, it’s thousands of people employed in the U.K. Q: You decided to make a new model of the Qashqai in Sunderland, England. A: As a car manufacturer, we have a cycle. A car lasts 5 to 6 years on the market and then you bring a new car. So every 6 years you have investments to be made. And if you have three or four cars in the plant, every 1 or 2 years. So for the moment, we said, “We have no reason to change our policy”, knowing that we don’t know what is after Brexit. That’s why we have decided to maintain the status quo in Sunderland, at the same time, explaining to the U.K. government that there are a lot of things at stake. We are not engaging in any political discussion. The only thing we worry about is the fact that this is a European plant based in the U.K. We care about its competitiveness. As long as we all agree on the fact that, no matter what is the solution after Brexit, it preserves the competitiveness of the industrial investments in the U.K., we are fine. Q: Given the voter pushback on globalization recently in some countries (a reversion to a bit of nationalism) if this had been the situation back when you formed the Renault-Nissan alliance, would you still feel comfortable going ahead with this cross-border alliance? A: I would not change anything. I don’t think this is the end of globalization. I think there are some corrections taking place. But I wouldn’t change anything. 10 years ago, I said, “The key of success of the alliance is make 2 things at the same time: respect for identities, and, at the same time, going for a global market, which means developing synergies”. You have to do both. If you miss one of them, you’re doomed. Today, what’s needed is more cultivating and respecting the identities existing in the world for this to be a good pillar for the development of globalization. Globalization is always at risk when people’s identities are felt as being at risk. Q: How do you make sure the factory workers feel that they’re part of not just a global company, but of a national enterprise? A: People down the line, the people in the plants or people on the sales force, they identify through their brand. They identify to their team. For them, the headquarters are something which is very fictional. They identify to their plant. For example, we are the major shareholder of Russian auto maker AvtoVAZ, with the Lada brand. The people in AvtoVAZ working in Tolyatti, they know they work for Lada. They don’t work for Renault. And their management, as much as possible, is Russian. We are still the major brand in Russia. We are not trying to compete against our own brand. We say, “Lada is the main brand in Russia. And we’re going to defend it”. So even the project we have as an alliance is something which sticks with identity. +++
+++ Good guy TESLA has had a change of heart. Following news the company would begin charging for Supercharger station use, Tesla will extend free charging to all existing owners. That means one of the greatest perks of owning a Tesla has once again returned. Tesla’s original plan was to shell out 1,600 kilometers of free charging to owners who placed orders after the first of this year. After that, it would charge a “small fee,” which was deemed to be cheaper than filling up a comparable full-size luxury car. Even better news: Existing owners who upgrade to another Model S or Model X get to keep the perk. First-time buyers are not eligible for the perk, but there still is a way to gain access to free charging. Tesla will allow existing Model S and Model X owners to offer free charging through a referral program. One Tesla owner can give out free charging to 5 other other buyers. Tesla’s charging network is the largest, most mature infrastructure in the United States, which makes it a coveted asset for not only the company but owners, too. The referral system isn’t perfect, but existing owners should be happy to hear juicing up their batteries will be free of charge, just like early adopters earned years ago. +++
+++ VOLKSWAGEN will ow it to the Dieselgate scandal its forced participation in the zero-emission vehicle segment: whether they like it or not, they’ll have to deliver 3 full electrics in California, including an SUV, by 2019. According to a recent Consent Decree signed against Volkswagen by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, there are numerous things to be paid by the company (“$225 million, including $66 million to California, for harm resulting from the sale of its 3.0-liter diesel”) but there’s much more as the judge singed the agreements between the carmaker, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Environmental Protection Agency and the country’s Department of Justice. And while one of the decrees is national (we can recall the automaker has to invest into a country-wide network of chargers, among others) the other one is specific for the state of California. The California Air Resources Board has stated “In addition, VW will contribute to California’s ZEV market by introducing 2 new ZEV models, plus the electric e-Golf, or its replacement, by 2019. One of those new vehicles must be an electric SUV”. They will also be forced to introduce a second SUV by 2020, and sales also need to be extensive for the sector, of more than 35.000 between 2019 and 2025. We can now extrapolate the models VW that will be required to sell in California, and most likely market them globally as well are part of the I.D. series of concepts. +++